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The reported England flag ban (St.George flag) and banning England shirts has seen a lot of internet rage lately.

The anger started when the Sun reported police guidance issued to pubs in Croydon suggesting a dress code (preventing football shirts being worn). The Police denied suggestions they were trying to ban England shirts. However when the authority responsible for your livelihood issues guidance on your conduct, or business they have more gravitas than mere ‘suggestions’.

None of this bothered me. A paper prints a story, people get outraged, the story denied, more outrage at the reporters and then the next step ensues. The denials such thing exists. The sanctimonious start pointing at those who believed such bans possible. Believers in these stories are labelled stupid and gullible (whilst also conceding such bans have happened in the past).

“These days you’re never more than a couple of clicks away from debunkers quick to squash these kinds of stories, though it’s worth pointing out that debunking a myth that people find believable and which fits to their prejudices can, surprisingly, make people believe the myth all the more. And while it’s (partly) true that England shirts have been ‘banned’ in the past.

You would expect those not taken in by the outrage of the original stories to be above the ignorance or pettiness, they are more ‘tolerant’ and ‘intelligent’…..

“You know, once it might have been intellectual shits and giggles to laugh at these cretins from the sidelines. But now, when groups like this can canvas this much interest, it’s time to worry. Something has to be done about the festering ignorance and prejudice of these morons, I’m so sick of all this. “

“Some of my facebook friends joined one of these groups. I put them straight and then de-friended them.”

I am guessing they were not really friends then, or you are just as odious and intolerant as those you ‘de-friend’.

“I’m always amused by how the people who shout loudest about being proud of being English are generally the the people who are least able to spell English words correctly. “If there affended they shood go back to there own country” etc.

If people had actually looked at the facebook pages linked to the very story they read and commented on. They would see mainly young children and teenagers. Their writing skills not developed, their spelling and grammar poor (even more so than normal when typing on a computer or phone, for a quick facebook comment).

Many will be like me. Received at best an average (if not damned right awful) education. We were never destined for an academic life, taught the basics, patted on the backs and told good luck. So yes a lot of people have poor spelling and grammar, many since leaving school will never have picked up a pen (short of filling out a form or two once a year).

The ‘intelligent’, liberal posters are quick to attack people for believing an untrue story as stupid, racists and uneducated. The same people who a generation ago would mock uneducated mill workers, farmers, tin and coal miners. People unable to read or write, having to sign their names with a X. How dare these people have a view (no matter whether right or wrong), look at how they express their thoughts – uneducated plebs.

“the flip side of this kind of thing is that it also brings out the nasty snobby side of lot of supposedly liberal people – check out the comments on the Liberal Conspiracy post on this topic, where there’s no shortage of people claiming anyone who wears an England shirt is an inbred idiotic racist.”

Here is the important part few liberals in their eagerness to shove their own bigotry down to print explore.

“The question here is not so much the particular incident sparking this internet outrage, but why people were so eager to believe it. Is it really beyond the realms of possibility that England memorabilia could be banned from venues ?”

We have seen these type of stories for over a decade. The papers are tapping into feelings of resentment that already exists. If any other group religious or ethnic felt so wronged or persecuted (whether rightly or wrongly), there would have been action. The English however have no such protectors or guardians in political or charity organisations. There have been many situations where the English have felt under some sort of concerted threat from politically correct organisations or political parties. We are to be subdued, not supported.

A simple sentence, act, piece of legislation could solve some of this. Instead time again we get…..

was not raised due to a “logistical operational matter “ “Health and safety won’t allow us to do it, unless we scaffold the building.
“That costs thousands of pounds and I’m sure the taxpayers of Colchester wouldn’t want us to spend that to put a flag up.”

One assumes that they have never heard of a steeple-jack or a cherry picker (presumably some of whom/which the council use and own).

“In 2008 St George’s Day parades were banned by local authorities in Bradford and Sandwell in the West Midlands on the grounds they could cause trouble or were ‘unhealthy’ and ‘tribal’.”

“A spokeswoman for Land Rover in the West Midlands said: “We asked them to take them down because we are a diverse firm and to allow England flags to be displayed would have meant allowing flags of other competing nations to be put up as well.”

“Anne Owers has banned the flag of England from prisons because muslim prisoners might feel threatened by the guards wearing pins of the St. Georges Cross, which is the Flag of England, as the flag was used during the Crusades. As we all know, muslims did not fare well during the crusades. The pins were sold as a fundraiser for a cancer charity.”

When the Church of England again feel they can fly the St.George. When Council buildings in England actually fly the St.George like their counterparts in Wales, and Scotland fly their national flags. When companies and organisations actually recognise that they work, operate, and make profits in England (from the English). Having a St.George displayed occasionally is not going to harm or bankrupt you.

When I start to see these things I will know that we are heading in the right direction. Because there is something distinctively wrong in England. It is bubbling below the surface of English society, the underlying cause of these feelings needs to be found and addressed before it to late.